Font ResizeLAS CRUCES - Sheriff's deputies responded to 5000 Chiricahua Trail on Thursday morning after a man called 911, said he was depressed and suicidal, and hung up. On scene, they called back. He picked up. After almost 20 minutes talking, they persuaded him to come outside the East Mesa home. The man, who was reportedly quite intoxicated but was unarmed and hadn't threatened anyone else, agreed to be taken away in an ambulance.
It was an acceptable outcome to a situation law enforcement responds to daily - usually without any publicity.
But there are problems with the picture: no mental evaluation facility south of Albuquerque, the lack of a mental health professional at all hours at local hospitals, and the possibility that someone in crisis might get shunted into the justice system, ending up in jail - or considered a threat, and killed - because of an illness. A relatively new group called the Behavioral Health Collaborative is trying to get the stakeholders in such an incident - police, emergency responders, families and counselors - together to handle crises as a team in Las Cruces and Do a Ana County.
And in light of such local shooting deaths, and incidents like the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson, Ariz., in which 20 people were injured by one young gunman, efforts like the collaborative's are all the more important, said longtime mental health advocate Ron Gurley, who attended the group's Thursday meeting. Such a shooting, Gurley said, "could happen here this
"Everyone has the passion to make a change in crisis-intervention, but the communication's not there," said collaborative member Renee Garcia. "We're trying to get everyone on the same page. It's going to be a long process."
And it all started with a tragedy.
Suicide by cop
"I'm going to put the elephant in the room: this all started with a suicide by cop," coalition member Becky Beckett said at the meeting.
Since meetings have started, local police officers have demonstrated a willingness to learn about mental illness, Mesilla Valley Hospital CEO Kevin Burgess said.
"It's already started to bridge some of those gaps," Burgess said.
Sgt. Shane Brisco, who heads the Las Cruces Police Department's hostage negotiation and crisis-intervention units, says the collaborative is "absolutely a step in the right direction."
Though LCPD couldn't immediately say how many such calls for service they receive in a given time frame, all its officers are required to receive at least 40 hours of crisis-intervention training in their academy to deal with such incidents. Perhaps a third of the department's officers have received additional training in crisis-intervention topics, Brisco said, and the department has applied for a federal grant that would train every officer.
"The only way to make this work in a community like ours is for everyone to just work together and say, in a nutshell, 'I know that's not the typical way I would do it, but we need to find a solution and help the person get through their crisis situation and advance their treatment," Brisco said. "It would be nice if we had a community with several different mental health-care hospitals and providers, but we just don't have it."
Costly to all
Land adjacent to the county government center building and some money have been set aside for a crisis triage center in Las Cruces, but that's a long way off, Brisco said. At such a facility, estimated to cost $1.6 million to build and equip and $1 million yearly, residents with serious mental health problems could receive immediate care, undergo a 23-hour stabilization period and be quickly linked with resources and programs that could help them. (The county has received a letter of support for the facility from Gov. Susana Martinez, according to the collaborative; Martinez's office couldn't immediately confirm her support.) But in the meantime, people who are the focus of repeated calls may get a lot of attention - at a high cost - but they're not necessarily getting the help they need.
"Let's say a police officer on day shift handles four calls for service involving this person," Brisco said. "Eventually, they're transported to the hospital. The next shift comes on and the person's released. It starts adding up ... that revolving-door type call: two officers, an ambulance ride, the fire department responding, costs incurred by the ER because they have certain things they have to do. When there's a breakdown with family or with a treatment regimen, law enforcement becomes involved and then it's a really slow process to get them the help they need."
And for someone in extreme crisis, New Mexico's state statute only allows placement in protective custody if there's an obvious danger to themselves or others.
"It's certainly not easy to get someone in for treatment," Brisco said. "It's just an absolute lack of resources. Everyone talks about getting someone in to (the state's psychiatric hospital in) Las Vegas, but its (capacity is) extremely small, maybe 50 or 60."
In addition, it costs between $600 to $4,000 to transport someone to Las Vegas, one legislator estimated.
'Throw a net'
Collaborative member Dr. Max Mastellone, a retired clinical psychologist who specialized in developmental disabilities, applauds the willingness of area police officers to sit down and talk about how to better treat people who might have a mental illness or be in crisis. But Mastellone - admittedly no expert in police policy - says there have to be changes that could be made to cut down on violent clashes between mentally ill civilians and officers - especially encounters that end in fatal shootings.
Ideally, Mastellone said, officers should know which call involves mental crisis - something that throws the question of medical privacy into play. But faced with a threat to their own lives, what should officers do?
"Throw a net around the guy," he said. "Do something to contain him. Who did he want to hurt? It seemed he wanted to hurt himself and didn't have the courage to do it. If police weren't there, was he going to hurt the next person on the street? I doubt it. (He was) disturbed, frightened, all sorts of things, but (he) probably wasn't aggressive or interested in hurting anybody ... When there's a threat, they need to understand people are frightened, more frightened and in despair and out of their heads and (they) need help controlling themselves. They don't need to die."
There has to be, Mastellone said, "a totally different way of dealing with folks, with no harm (to them). Obviously, they need help."
Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5462.
If you go
The Behavioral Health Collaborative meets next from 1-3 p.m. on Feb. 4 at Southwest Counseling Center, 100 W. Griggs Ave., Las Cruces. Invited guests include district attorney Amy Orlando, Hugo Costa from Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority and SWAT team members.
Online: https://sites.google.com/site/dalbhc/home
Learn more
• What: National Alliance on Mental Illness family-to-family program, for family members and partners of individuals with depression, panic or addictive disorders, manic depression, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder
• When: The first of 12 weekly classes begins at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 7
• Cost: Free
• Information: Registration is required before Feb. 21. Call (575) 382-9526 or (575) 523-1521.
Law enforcement response to a known crisis
• Dispatch receives initial call, crisis-intervention-trained officers are contacted and police, fire and ambulance are sent out
• On the scene, authorities determine if the person in crisis needs to be placed in protective custody or has volunteered to be placed in custody
• If someone with a diagnosed mental condition is involved, they are taken to an area hospital for assessment and the mobile crisis unit is contacted
• Police report completed
Mental health facilities in Las Cruces
• Memorial Medical Center admits adult psychiatric patients to Five West, the Behavioral Health Unit, for stays usually up to one week. Patients are searched for weapons and their belongings are secured until the patient is stabilized. The 12-bed unit is locked and contains one padded room and an area for in-house court proceedings.
• MountainView Regional Medical Center has 16 emergency beds but no specially trained staff for mental health issues. Patients with suicidal thoughts are handled one-on-one, but crisis intervention and referral are targeted for improvement.
• Mesilla Valley Hospital offers an adult psychiatric unit, chemical dependency services, geriatric services, two units for adolescent treatment and a "bridge" unit used by corrections officers to refer inmates for mental health treatment. All staff is trained in patient management and de-escalation is emphasized.
Source: Behavioral Health Collaborative meeting, "Crisis Collaboration With Law Enforcement," Jan. 7, 2011
